Flushing-tank.



No. 741,203. PATENTED 001.13, 1903.

' W. A. WILLIAMS.

PLUSHING TANK.

APPLICATION FILED rm. 14, 1903.

N0 MODEL.

21 2.2 v a 55 Fi I'VITNESSES: 7 5 INVENTOR.

M 21/. w u kt.

ATTORNEY:

Nrtnn rains 1 Patented October 13, 1903.

Parent trick.

FLUSHING-TANK.

.SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 741,203, dated October13, 190 3.

Application filed February 14, 1903. Serial No. 143,407. (No model.)

To (tZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that LWILLIAM A.WILL1AMS, a citizen of the United States,residing at San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco and State ofCalifornia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inFlushing-Tanks, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in flushing-tanks, the object of myinvention being to provide an apparatus of this character which shall besimple and economical in construction, not liable to get out of order,easily set up, easily adjusted, and as nearly noiseless as possible.

My inventiontherefore resides in the novel construction, combination,and arrangement of parts for the above ends hereinafter fully specified,and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the tankwith the front side broken away to show the construction. Fig. 2 is asimilar view of a modification.

Referring to the drawings, 1 represents the tank, and 2 the supply-valvetherefor, which is of the ordinary construction, having a plunger 3 anda lever 4 pivoted on the valve-casing, as shown at 5, and engaging theplunger. On the outer end of said lever is pivotally mounted a shank 6,through which passes an adjusting-screw 7, the head of which is formedinto an eye 8. Said eye is passed over a finger or extension 9 of thelever and prevents said screw from turning. Upon said screw is mountedan adjusting ring or nut 10, which is contained in a central cavity 11of the shank, so that the angular movement of the shank relativelyto thelever is controlled by the movement of said ring or not upon the screw.By screwing the ring up or down the shank may be correspondingly raisedor lowered relatively to the lever. To said shank is secured the rod 12,carrying at its outer end the float 13. It will readily be seen that theheight to which it is desired to permit the level of the water to risebefore closing the valve may be readily adjusted by reaching down withthe hand into the tank and turning the nut one way or the other with thefinger.

An important feature of myinvention consists in the construction of thesiphon. Heretofore the general method of discharging the siphon has beento open a valve, which allows the water to flow out of the siphon. Thesevalves are apt to leak, thus starting defects." Therefore my firstobject is to provide a construction in which no valve is used. This I doby depressing the siphon itself to commence the siphoning of the tank.Further, in depressing'said'siphou I aim to avoid the use of any movablejoint which is expensive and apt to leak; For this purpose I provide asa part of the siphon a rubber tube 14. Such rubber tube, however, has tobe made of considerable thickness in order to permit of bending withoutundue deformation of the tube at a single point, which would by constantuse cause the tube to crack at that point. The tube being thick againnecessitates that it shallbe of considerable length, for a heavy thicktube cannot be bent sufficiently if of short length; but the length ofthe tank is limited, and, furthermore, the tank must be so constructedthat the lever may be pulled from either end and the discharge-pipe bein the center, so as to allow of its setting up in various locations. Toaccomplish the above object, therefore, Iprovide the followingconstruction: The discharge-pipe 15 discharges from a point equidistantfrom the ends of the tank, and to said discharge-pipe is connected apipe 16, preferably of metal, leading to one end of the tank, as shown,and there bent upward, as shown at 17. Upon the end of saidupwardly-bent portion is clamped the end of a thick rubber tube 14, theother end of which is clamped to a metal pipe 19, bent downward, asshown at 20. To said latter pipe is connected a bar 21, which is bentover in the form of a hook, as shown, to the end of which can beattached the usual chain for siphoning the tank. When the bar is sodopressed, the bend 20 in the pipe 19 is forced below the water-line,and the siphoning action is started through the rubber tube 14 and thepipe 16. A stud 22 projects from the side of the bar 21, and as the baris depressed said stud engages the side of a latch 23, pivoted upon astandard 24, and swings said latch inward, so that said stud can pass tothe under side thereof,whereupon the latch again immediately swingsoutward by its own weight and engages said stud and holds the siphondown. The siphon is thus held down until the level of the water hasfallen to a point where the air begins to enter the bottom of thesiphon. It is desirable to release the siphon immediately when thishappens, so as to prevent the snorting and gurgling noise caused by thepassage of air underneath the lip of the siphon. To permit this to bedone automatically, I provide a float 26,which swings on the end of alever 27, pivoted upon the standard 24, an arm 28.0f which lever engagesa tongue 29 upon the latch. Said float 26 descends with the level of thewater, and when it has reached a level at which the air would begin toenter the bottom of the siphon the arm will have moved inwardlysufficiently to release the stud 22 from the latch and permit the barand siphon to rise. This they will immediately do by reason of thecounterbalance-weight 34 upon the end of a lever 30, pivoted at 31 upona bracket 32, secured upon the side of the tank, the forward end of saidlever being connected with said bar by means of a link 33.

In Fig. 2 I have shown a modification in which the latch is dispensedwith, the upper end of the rubber tube being connected in this case witha pipe 35, which is bent backward in adirection substantially parallelwith said rubber tube. The mouth of this latter pipe forms the mouth ofthe siphon and remains comparatively near the bottom of the tank whetherthe siphon be raised or lowered. As soon as the siphon has beendepressed and the chain released the siphon will rise to its originalposition; but the siphoning will continue until the water reaches thelevel of the mouth of the siphon, and as soon as any air enters saidmonth, by reason of the gradual slope of said pipe 35, the air willeasily run up said pipe close to the upper side thereof and will breakthe siphoning action without any snorting noise.

The flexible joint connecting the siphon with the discharge-pipe,especially the joint of rubber hose, the continuous walled siphon, andthe float acting independently of the siphon form the subjects of claimsof a copending application filed by me, Serial No. 130,076, and I do notclaim the same herein.

I claim- 4 1. The combination, with a tank, of a discharge-pipe thereforlocated at a point equidistant from the ends of the tank, a pipeconnected with said discharge-pipe and leading to a point close to oneend of the tank and there bent round, aflexible rubber tube connectedwith said bent end and extending substantially the whole length of thetank, a downwardly-extending pipe connected with the free end of saidrubber tube, and means for depressing the siphon by bending said rubbertube, substantially as described.

2. The combination, with a tank, of a discharge-pipe therefor located ata point equidistant from the ends of the tank, a'pipe connected withsaid discharge-pipe and leading to a point close to one end of the tankand there bent round, a flexible rubber tube connected with said bentend extending substantially the whole length of the tank, adownwardly-extending pipe connected with the free end of said rubbertube, and means for depressing the siphon by bending said rubber tube, alatch for automatically retaining said siphon when so depressed and afloat for withdrawing said latch to release said siphon, said latchoperating to retain the siphon independently of said float,substantially as described.

3. The combination of the plunger, the pivoted lever for operating theplunger, the shank pivotally mounted upon the outer end of said leverand having atransverse cavity, the adjusting-screw passing through saidshank having an eye passed over a finger or hand in the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

I VV. A. WILLIAMS.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS M. WRIGHT, Bnssrn GORFINKEL.

